I know I haven’t posted in a long time and
the few post I am going to do now are a bit dated but there are a few things
that would be a shame not to document, mainly the roller-coaster that was the
Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
I will explain later why it has been so
long since my last post but for now I will give you a glimpse of the most
amazing experience of my life and probably the most stressful week of my life.
As I had mentioned in my previous post I
went over on my ankle in Mallorca 3 weeks out from the games, it was a pretty
big set back but not a disaster. Not enough drama for my liking so I had to make
things even harder for myself.
Six day before the individual race I had a
physio appointment to make sure everything was ready for the following week, as
I do not get any physio support whilst living in Scotland I am required to get
a short train journey to Life fit Physiotherapy in Falkirk. What was planned to
be a final check up and make sure I was 100% turned into a nightmare… In the
train station on the way there my ankle gave way going down the stairs –twice
in 3weeks, this time much worse- with it being the second time in short
succession my ankle ballooned immediately; I knew it was bad. The train journey
was the scariest 18mins I have experienced. A combination of the idea of now
not racing the following week after so much hard work, the sever pain in my
ankle and just pure shock, I didn’t know if I was going to be sick or faint, it
was horrible – thankfully I did neither.
I got to the Physio and Stewart seen me
immediately, with so much swelling it was hard to feel anything but it was
excruciating to touch, so as I was his last patient of the day he went above
and beyond and took me to A&E to get an X-ray. In and out of A&E in
30mins on a Friday evening, its amazing what happens when you hobble in and
tell them your planning on competing in the commonwealth Games in 6 day –
special treatment. Thankfully it wasn’t broken but I left on crutches, which is
not something you want to be hobbling around on that close to a major games.
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| After my quick trip to A&E |
On the Sunday (t minus 4days to individual
race) I traveled down from Stirling to Glasgow - 35min drive, I will never have
a shorter trip to major games again.
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| All packed up for my short trip to Glasgow |
I got down and on that night made the most
of Team Northern Ireland already being set up in the village I was able to see
Chris the team physio straight away.
The news was not promising, nobody liked
the look of my ankle and with such a short time to my event I was forced to be non-weight
bearing for 48hours, made to walk around the athlete village on crutches,
constantly having people stare or even stop to ask what has happened, its not a
common thing to see someone on crutches in an athletes village before the
opening ceremony has even happened.
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| Not how I wanted to get around the Athletes village |
The next morning I was sat down and told
that I might not be allowed to race the individual race, I was explained that
the priority was the team relay as we had a half decent chance and if the ankle
was still questionable the individual was a no-no, as you can imagine, this was
not an option for me.
I went through rigorous testing to check
out my ankle and make sure it was strong enough to race, I spent the next six
days trying to prove to the physio that the ankle would be ok, I spent those
six days, biting my tongue and lying through my teeth that it was no longer
sore, but I was confident it would hold up if I was allowed to race, with the
treatment I was getting on top of the rehab I managed to be ready – I couldn’t
have done it without the help of SINI or Team NI but at the same time mentally
there was no option that I was not going to be on the start line of my 1st
Commonwealth Games.
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| A lot of ice |
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| My view for most of my week in Glasgow |
It was an extremely hard week mentally and
physically but I was on that start line on the 24th July 2014.
